Seven Last Words from the Cross: SCO Chorus prepares for 'hugely powerful' Easter concert

No fewer than 16 years have passed since Gregory Batsleer became chorus director of the SCO Chorus. That’s a long time – especially for a musician as accomplished and ambitious as Batsleer, as he’s well aware. “If you asked someone who’d done something for that amount of time,” he chuckles, “they might say they felt quite tired, and that it was maybe time to think about what’s next. But actually, this still feels just as fresh as it did when we first started working together.”

That might sound like a canny bit of artistic diplomacy, but don’t just take his word for it: Batsleer’s commitment and musical insights are abundantly clear in the SCO Chorus’s performances, with its rich, velvety but crystal-clear sound, and singing that’s evidently utterly committed, deeply felt and profoundly meant.

Gregory Batsleer | Christopher Bowen

Batsleer and the chorus are currently part-way through a particularly bold and diverse season – they’ve performed Mozart’s C minor Mass, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Fauré’s Requiem since the autumn, along with their a cappella Christmas concerts, now a regular seasonal fixture. Still to come: two more big choral concerts before the SCO’s current season ends in May.

How a group like the SCO Chorus – or, indeed, any other of the UK’s many orchestral choruses – actually functions might be something of a mystery. For a start, membership is strictly by audition. “Every singer is required to audition every two years,” explains Batsleer. “We have a pool of around 70 singers, and they’re all highly skilled musicians – many of them have studied music to a high level. We’re lucky that we can be selective about who’s in the choir – in fact we’re over-subscribed, which is a very luxurious position to be in.”

Most fundamentally, however, the SCO Chorus is – again, like just about any other of the UK’s orchestral choruses – an amateur group. That’s “amateur” in its original meaning, though: its singers might not be salaried, but they’re nonetheless motivated by a passion for what they do. “What’s always at the back of my mind,” explains Batsleer, “is that these singers are giving up their own time for the chorus. In my role, it’s paramount that you never take that time for granted. We have to feel like the choir is always evolving – if they’re growing and improving, and if their musical outlook is expanding, then I hope they won’t ever feel like they’ve been taken for granted.”

For Batsleer himself, however, there’s always the possibility that his role as chorus director might be a thankless task. Yes, he’s the one who helps plan repertoire, takes rehearsals, shapes and moulds the chorus’s singing, decides on who’s in and who’s out. But by contrast, he’s often not the person conducting the chorus in the concerts themselves: that responsibility usually falls to whoever’s conducting the orchestra. Can’t that feel a little frustrating?

“We’re fortunate to work with some extraordinary conductors,” he says. “And it’s actually a joy and a privilege to be able to hand the choir over to them. In fact, we all learn from that process. Maybe that’s one area where things have shifted in the 16 years I’ve been in the role. In the beginning I might have thought: ‘I wish I was conducting the concert’. Now, I actually don’t. And in any case, I’m very fortunate to conduct a few concerts with the orchestra and choir, which quench my appetite.”

Scottish Chamber Orchestra Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev conducts the Orchestra and SCO Chorus at City Halls Glasgow | Christopher Bowen

Batsleer is indeed conducting the SCO Chorus’s next outing, in what promises to be a memorable, one-off evening in Edinburgh’s Greyfriars Kirk. Its centrepiece is what Batsleer describes as one of his real desert island pieces: Sir James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross. It’s a deeply serious, hugely powerful piece that sets the seven last utterances of the crucified Christ – and it’s hardly coincidence that it’s being performed on the day before the start of Holy Week. But whether we’re believers or not, Batsleer feels, we shouldn’t shy away from the piece’s powerfully religious themes. “It’s a depiction of one of the most important religious moments that’s ever existed in history, and it comes from a composer who profoundly believes. It’s a fundamental story, and it’s one that’s trying to help us understand who we are.” MacMillan does that, Batsleer feels, through his music’s ability to present Christ as both God and human. “In terms of the story, the seven last utterances of Christ are very much human utterances about a moment between life and death. You don’t have to be a believer to look on those moments and wonder: what will that be like?”

Sir James MacMillan | Marc Marnie

If the SCO Chorus’s penultimate season concert is all about contemplation and renewal, then its final concert has a very different atmosphere. Haydn’s “Nelson” Mass might have been written in a period of great conflict – the composer called it a “Missa in angustiis” or “mass for troubled times”, referring to Napoleon’s seemingly unstoppable military advances across Europe – but it’s also indelibly associated with Nelson’s rout of French forces at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, and the sense of hope and joy that fortunes were about to be reversed.

“It’s got such a great spirit to it,” says Batsleer. “It’s really dramatic, but the thing with Haydn is that as much as he tries to be serious, his music ends up being enormous fun. We’ll be doing the concert with SCO Principal Conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, who – more than any other conductor we’ve worked with – has the ability to take a piece of music and make it feel like a totally fresh piece of art. You think you know Haydn’s ‘Nelson’ Mass? No, you don’t.”

Batsleer is a man in high demand. We talk as he’s travelling back to London for the London Handel Festival, which he directs, and he’s also in charge of other notable vocal groups, including the Huddersfield Choral Society. “My life is incredibly busy,” he admits. “And I’m not sure how long it can continue at quite the level it is. But on the way to the last SCO Chorus rehearsal, I felt immediately calm, knowing I was about to rehearse with a group of people I respect and admire, and that we’ll work on music that we all love. I get a lot from that. It’s possibly remiss of me to think about what comes next, when I should be thinking about gratitude for the opportunities I have here.”

Gregory Batsleer conducts the SCO Chorus and SCO Strings in MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross at Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, on 12 April. Maxim Emelyanychev conducts the SCO and SCO Chorus in Haydn’s “Nelson” Mass at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh on 8 May and the City Halls, Glasgow, 9 May. For details see www.sco.org.uk The Scotsman is the official media partner of the SCO’s 2024/25 Season